Five Oscar-eligible shorts I’ve seen recently are “Tea,” “Corpse Fishing,” “Anuja,” “Heart of Texas” and “Deck 5B.” There are more to come, but here’s how the first five struck me, listed in the order I enjoyed them:
Tea
Michael Gandolfini (son of James) in “Tea.”
Directed by Blake Rice and starred Michael Gandolfini (“The Many Saints of Newark”), son of James Gandolfini. This hilarious short follows a young man rehearsing to ask out the girl of his dreams when a sudden hornet sting throws everything into chaos. This offbeat comedy premiered at Cannes as the only U.S. film in the Short Films Competition and has qualified to be considered for the 2025 Oscars. The short premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as the only U.S. film. It has qualified for Best Short Film at the Nashville Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, Palm Springs, and HollyShorts. It has qualified to be considered for the 2025 Oscars®.
I thought immediately of the 1999 film “Election” (Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick) where a bee sting turns Broderick into something more closely resembling the Hunchback of Notre Dame than the previous smiling teacher supervising the school election. Similarly, young Gandolfini is immediately in dire straits after being stung. It falls to Olivia Nikkanen to save the poor guy. Olivia (“The Americans,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “The Little Foxes”) is best known for her work as a series regular on the Netflix hit series THE SOCIETY (2019) and for her recurring arc on SUPERGIRL (2015). This short spoke to me because it seemed to represent the growing portion of the U.S. population who are defined as “incels.” Incels are involuntarily celibate, usually white and male, and often found online. They would like to have a girlfriend, but, for a variety of reasons, that isn’t happening despite their best efforts. Some incels then become hostile towards all women, as a result, but in this amusing short, we hope that the two might actually connect, although it certainly has taken a lot for young Gandolfini to get through to his would-be female rescuer.
Corpse Fishing
The corpse fisherman and young passenger (Yan) in “Corpse Fishing”
Set in southern China in the Hubei Province, this enigmatic short follows a despairing girl named Yan as she strikes a deal with a stranger to go fishing for bodies in a desperate attempt to find her missing father. This incredible story is inspired by Wei Xinpeng, a real ‘corpse fisherman’, who scans the river looking for cadavers, which he then sells back to grieving families. This film was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival and was part of the official selection at HollyShorts. The 16-minute film has qualified for the Academy Awards and, indeed, the very thought that there is a job called “corpse fisherman” was enough to grab my attention and hold it throughout.
This incredible story is inspired by Wei Xinpeng, a real ‘corpse fisherman’, who scans the river looking for cadavers, which he then sells back to grieving families. He charges $100 to look for and $1,000 to bury the body. Yan—who has been futilely searching for her father who disappeared—speaks with the corpse fisherman and he is so grateful to have company that he offers her the opportunity to travel with him down the river and, for each day she withstands the horrible smell of decomposing bodies aboard his small boat, she will earn a peek at a body. There are three corpses aboard the boat when Yan throws in with the fisherman, who puts a homemade life preserver on the young girl because she tells him that she cannot swim.
We also learn that her mother disappeared and she was told that “the heat drove Mother mad and she went North to recover.” The film was written and directed by Jean Liu and is part of an initiative called “Rising Voices,” which seeks to give under-represented filmmakers a chance. Indeed’s “Rising Voices” was created in collaboration with Lena Waithe, Hillman Grad Productions, and 271 Films. The idea was to give the production for a national TV spot and, instead, invest it in 10 BIPOC directors creating short films. The directors each received $10,000 script payment and $100,000 to make their film. Through 4 seasons, over 2,000 industry jobs have been created in this fashion, with many of them going to people of color who have been historically under-represented. For a reviewer born in Independence, Iowa, on the Wapsi-Pinicon River, the idea of a corpse fisherman in central China was mind-blowing. So, for me, this powerful short film and “Tea” tie for first place of these five shorts.
Anuja
“Anuja”
Came in third for me, for many of the same reasons that “Corpse Fisherman” grabbed my attention. It is a film set in Delhi, India, and the star of the film, Sajda Pathan, is an orphan from the streets of Delhi who lives in a home for girls rescued from the streets. They are provided food, shelter, and education and there are thousands of them. Anuja’s older sister is portrayed by Ananya Shanbhag as Palak. Ananya is employed in a sweatshop sewing clothing. Palak is very resourceful and hard-working and has figured out a way to use scraps of material to make bags, which she and her younger sister, Anuja, sell on the streets of Delhi. Anuja, however, is a 9-year-old math wizard. She is claiming to be 14 and working, illegally, alongside her sister in the sweatshop. If she will take advantage of the opportunity afforded her to break out of the yoke of illegal child labor she can take a qualifying exam and attend the Williams Boarding School, which will give her a chance at a better life. Adam J. Graves is the Writer/Director of “Anuja,” which highlights the nonprofit organization the Salaam Baalak Trust in its efforts to rescue homeless children from the streets of Delhi. Watching young Sajda watch the film for the first time with the other children in her home was touching.
Deck 5B
This captivating film follows a mother who is torn between the needs of her young child and her own desires. The drama won “Best International Short Film” at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and has qualified for consideration for the upcoming Academy Awards. Director Malin Ingrid Johansson was born and raised on a farm in the Swedish countryside and might be one of the few directors who knows how to operate a tractor as well as a camera.
Malin’s previous short MADDEN premiered internationally at the Berlinale ‘23, claiming multiple awards at various international film festivals. Lead actress Alma Pöysti is an acclaimed Finnish actor who has made significant strides in Scandinavian cinema, earning accolades such as ‘Best Actress’ at the Finnish Film Awards for her role in TOVE and ‘Best Actress’ at the 2023 Gothenburg Film Festival for FOUR LITTLE ADULTS.
Malin’s recent works include lead roles in Netflix’s A DAY AND A HALF and Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes Film Festival’s Prix du Jury winner FALLEN LEAVES, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. It’s not that Alma Poysti doesn’t do a good job with the story of a mother aboard a boat (cars on boats that cross the English Channel, for instance) who is heading for a tryst with a new boyfriend who also has a child. The little boy is a typical little boy and not particularly cooperative in helping his mother connect with a potential new lover. The short film was well done, but it was ordinary. Nothing screamed, “Wow! Look at that!” I enjoyed it, but I wondered how much of its acclaim could be laid at the feet of the accolades the lead actress has garnered for other work.
Heart of Texas
After receiving news from a potentially life-changing radio contest, an aspiring country singer Janie May (Lauren Noll) races to the studio after her overnight diner shift when she collides with an undocumented worker — changing the course of both their futures. Gregory J.M. Kasunich’s THE HEART OF TEXAS has been a festival favorite, with screenings at HollyShorts, the Palace International Short Film Festival and Sidewalk Film Festival, accumulating 14 accolades so far during its festival run. The film has qualified for the 2025 Oscars®.
Director and co-writer Gregory JM Kasunich is an award-winning film, commercial and music video writer, director, and producer from Pittsburgh, PA. His body of work includes projects for Taylor Swift, The Pentatonix, The Summer Set, DreamWorks, Disney, Lucasfilm, General Mills, DirectTV, Mattel, iHeatRadio, and many others. His editorial and portrait photography has been published in several periodicals. Lead actress, co-writer, and producer Lauren Noll is a Los Angeles-based actor and filmmaker with a Master’s Degree in Acting from Harvard University.
Since arriving in LA post-grad school, in addition to acting in various films, commercials, and music videos, Lauren’s curiosity around other roles in filmmaking led her to write, direct, and star in her first award-winning short film, “Honor” (2020), a personal drama about the encounter of a queer student with Brigham Young University’s honor code office. She followed that filmmaking debut with “Gen V” (2021) for which she was granted a development deal with Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe, and “Clean Slate” (2022), which was awarded a grand jury prize at the Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge, and “The Heart of Texas” (2023), which has garnered her six acting awards to date. She is currently preparing for her feature film directorial debut.
Male lead Carlos Moreno Cravioto is an actor with multiple film and TV credits to his name including a recurring role in the popular Mexican series “La bella y las bestias” (2018).For me, (who lives near Waco), the end of the film, (which shows poor Carlos staggering around in a field, all bloodied) was not an ending at all. I thought she should have driven her car with the injured man in it to any place where he could receive medical care, but not be kicked out of the country for having no papers. Perhaps she knew a nurse or someone with a first-aid kit. She was very lucky that she hadn’t killed the poor guy and the singing just annoyed me on many levels at that point.
